


Chuck vs The Strange Glow

by emungere



Series: Easy Listening [2]
Category: Chuck (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-14
Updated: 2014-09-14
Packaged: 2018-02-17 10:02:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2305733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emungere/pseuds/emungere
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Did you just call me and hang up?"</p>
<p>There was a pause. "Maybe," Casey said. </p>
<p>"Why?"</p>
<p>"No reason."</p>
<p>Chuck lay back down and looked up at the ceiling. There was a wad of glow-in-the-dark sticky stuff up there from that time a couple years ago when Morgan had tried to make him think aliens were invading his room. He listened to Casey breathe for a second.</p>
<p>"Did you hear me having a nightmare?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chuck vs The Strange Glow

Chuck rolled Ellie's dead body out on its metal tray in a wash of air conditioning and decay. He woke up a second later, doing this squeaky breathing thing that was almost-but-not-quite screaming.

His phone was ringing, but it stopped before he could answer. The caller ID said CASEY. He stared at it and frowned, fuzzy-brained from sleep and nightmares and, well, and almost dying again. He hit redial.

"What?" Casey said.

"Did you just call me and hang up?"

There was a pause. "Maybe," Casey said. 

"Why?"

"No reason."

Chuck lay back down and looked up at the ceiling. There was a wad of glow-in-the-dark sticky stuff up there from that time a couple years ago when Morgan had tried to make him think aliens were invading his room. He listened to Casey breathe for a second.

"Did you hear me having a nightmare?"

Casey grunted.

Chuck grinned.

"Shut up," Casey said.

"You realize I didn't actually say anything there."

"Go back to sleep."

"Uh." He thought about Ellie's horribly pale face and the way she'd been smiling just a little. "I don't think so. Thanks anyway."

Another pause, longer this time. "You could come over here."

Chuck frowned at the glowy ceiling alien. "Huh? I mean. You what now?"

"If you're not in the house, I don't have to listen to the bugs."

"Okay, but--"

"Your sister and her boytoy are getting freaky in the kitchen. Again."

The silence this time was resounding. Chuck tried hard not to think about all the times he'd made his sandwiches directly on the counter, without benefit of plate or even paper towel.

"I'll be right over."

" _Awesome_."

***

They sat on either side of a table that up until now Chuck had only seen used for mission planning. It looked like a normal kitchen table now. The plate of chocolate chip cookies in the middle helped.

"Milk and cookies?" Chuck said. "Seriously?"

"Milk's good for sleeping. Got that stuff, right?"

"Stuff?"

"That turkey stuff."

"Oh, right." They were really good cookies. "Hey, what are you doing for Thanksgiving?"

"As little as possible and don't even think about inviting me."

"Hey, no. I was just thinking, you know, if you were making pie anyway, you could make extra. Because Ellie's aren't very good, but don't tell her I said so. It's a secret I've kept lo these many years."

Casey pointed a finger at him and did his fake smile thing. "Funny. Real funny."

Chuck thought he might detect a slight thawing around Casey's eyes, but it was hard to tell. "Yep, I'm a funny guy."

There was an awkward silence. Really, it was amazing there hadn't been one sooner. Chuck cleared his throat. "So. You want to watch TV?"

They watched TV. This late at night, there wasn't much on. Chuck voted for Lost in Space, but Casey said he saw enough dorks in funny clothes at the Buy More every day and changed it to Fight Club.

"You don't think those are funny clothes?" Chuck said. "Those are funny clothes. Those are clothes with a sense of humor."

_Ow! You hit me in the ear!_ said the television.

Casey snickered. "Now that's funny."

"Do you think that's true?" Chuck said, a while later. "That stuff about how much do you know about yourself if you've never been in a fight?"

Casey turned to look at him, squinty-eyed. He was quiet a second. "You've been in a couple now. What do you think?"

Chuck sighed. "I think I'm not very good at them and I should probably wait in the car."

The quiet was longer this time. Tyler Durden was wandering around in his teacup-covered bathrobe before Casey answered.

"You do okay," he said. "For a wuss with no training."

Chuck felt kind of weirdly glowy at that, inside, not unlike a ceiling alien, but warmer. Still, "I am not a wuss. I have none of the qualities of a wuss. Well, okay, maybe one or two, but one or two symptoms are not enough for a diagnosis of wussitude."

Casey seemed to consider that. "You're right," he said, shockingly. Chuck sat there and was shocked. "Still no training, though."

"I don't see anyone offering me spy classes."

Casey snorted. "Well, don't look at me. Not in my job description."

"I guess I could get more in shape," Chuck said, mostly to himself because Casey tended to stop listening at times like this. "Go running with Awesome or something." He thought of Awesome and Ellie in the kitchen and made a face. They couldn't still be at it, surely. It wasn't that he didn't think his sister had a right to, to, yeah, whatever, in the house, like, wherever she wanted. It was just that he wished he could've kept on not knowing about it. Forever.

"You can come with me if you get up early enough," Casey said.

Chuck frowned. "What?"

"Running."

"Oh. _Oh_. Really?"

"Sure. You'll be too out of breath to talk." Casey gave him one of those smiles that reminded Chuck of a shark, fast and full of teeth.

"Oh. What time?"

"Five-thirty."

Chuck nodded and whimpered a little, inwardly. He preferred seeing five thirty coming from the other direction. It was nearly two now.

"Even tomorrow?"

"Every day, no matter what."

"And then do you do a hundred sit ups and polish all your guns?"

"No," Casey said, deadpan. "Two hundred."

As so often happened, Chuck really wasn't sure if he was joking or not. He thought about what Commander Data had said on that one episode of Next Generation, about friendship, something about neural pathways becoming accustomed to each other's sensory input. "You just get used to people," Ellie would say. And then she'd add, "Except Morgan."

"Right, they should be done now," Casey said abruptly. "Get out."

Chuck saluted. "Yes, sir, Major Mini-quiche."

Casey glowered, and Chuck was almost not completely intimidated. Progress.

"Five-thirty," Casey said, as he shoved Chuck out the door. "I'm not waiting for you."

Chuck smiled to himself and thought he might be able to sleep again. Yeah, progress.


End file.
